Gabriel Arditi
Gabriel is a young man of Israeli heritage who suffered some mental health troubles as a youth. He never really placed that past behind him and lives a sort of migratory lifestyle. When he is introduced, he is living in France. He possesses no fondness for his home country, which makes his posing as an Orthodox Jew to avoid the military service especially ironic.
Adam
Adam owns his own car repair shop. He has a sweet little family, but he's relatively emotionally distant. He doesn't even notice when his wife begins an affair with Gabriel. Welcoming Gabriel into his home, he takes a fast liking for the guy and becomes devoted to finding him again after his guest's disappearance.
Veducha
Veducha is Adam's grandmother, presumed dead but actually resting in a coma. When she recovers, she is faced with the rest of her life as an invalid in her own home. Worse yet, her caretaker is Na'im, an Arab. Veducha possesses a profoundly racist ideology and detests her dependence upon Na'im . . . at first. She does eventually grow to reconcile with him because he is a dutiful friend and caretaker.
Asya
Asya feels the absence of her husband's emotional attention deeply. This is why she's so receptive to Gabriel when he moves in and eventually pursues an affair with him. She's a teacher deeply committed to her students.
Na'im
He's an Arab teen who works part time in the garage with Adam. He falls in love with Dafi and continues to work for Adam in order to be near her, trying to earn points with him by caring for Veducha. In the process, he takes excellent care of Veducha and establishes rapport with her, though she dies despite his care.
Dafi
Dafi is Adam and Asya's teenage daughter. She's a headstrong girl who remains conscious that she, as a girl, is not as desirable to her parents as the son they already lost. In order to attract her parents' attention, she often acts out in school.
